Wal-Mart today becomes the first major retailer to offer downloadable digital movies from all the major Hollywood studios. As the nation's top seller of movies and music--with about 40% of the DVD business--it has the leverage to extract concessions from the studios on products and pricing. Wal-Mart's online movie store emulates the no-frills atmosphere and pricing of its stores. It undercuts rivals on price, selling downloads of new movie releases for $12.88 to $19.88 and older titles for $7.50. Downloads of TV shows sell for $1.96 an episode. The store, at http://www.walmart.com/videodownloads, will compete with Apple …

The Goodyear airship, which has been absent from the brand's advertising since the 1980s, will reappear in a new "Get there," campaign that will debut Feb. 18 during the Daytona 500. TV spots will star two blimp pilots--actually actors--with one playing the role of the sage and the other an eager-to-learn younger man. In the initial three broadcast spots, the two converse about what they see on the ground and weave a message of security and dependability into their conversation. "The Goodyear blimp has been such a focal point for this brand, such a powerful marketing tool, …

Advertising for Glad trash bags on New York City garbage trucks--billing the brand as "New York City tough"--were responsible for boosting the brands market share by two points in December. Glad Products Co., an 80-20 joint venture between Clorox Co. and Procter & Gamble Co., first put ads on the sanitation vehicles last Thanksgiving through a partnership with the nonprofit group Keep America Beautiful. The campaign came to an end Jan. 31. The New York City Department of Sanitation reports that it is fielding calls from other advertisers--including two entertainment marketers and another marketer of cleaning products--that are …

For the ninth consecutive year, Anheuser-Busch won USA Today's Ad Meter real-time consumer focus group ranking of Super Bowl commercials. The No. 1 ad features a group of computer-generated crabs on the beach bowing down at the altar of a red ice chest filled with Budweiser that looks like a giant crab. Overall, A-B took seven of the top 10 spots. Slapstick violence sometimes worked, and sometimes didn't. Panelists loved a Bud Light ad about a guy who takes a Rock, Paper, Scissors game too literally - and tosses a real rock to win a Bud Light. It finished …

A secret restructuring plan dubbed "Project X" that will be unveiled on Feb. 14. It calls for unprecedented sharing of vehicle architectures and parts between Chrysler and Mercedes, including developing small cars and SUVs together. The plan will transform Chrysler into a smaller, more efficient automaker, with closer ties to its German parent company and the Mercedes-Benz luxury division. The plan also outlines deep cost cuts, similar to those at General Motors and Ford, including plant closings, a reduction of factory shifts and employee buyouts aimed at slashing more than 10,000 blue-collar jobs. The success of Project …

On a Wednesday last month, General Motors' Saturn division asked Deutsch/LA to create advertising around the Aura model's Car of the Year honors at the North American International Auto Show. By the following Monday, Deutsch showed Saturn an integrated campaign, including ideas for seven TV spots. A couple of days after that, Saturn suddenly shifted the nearly $200 million Saturn account from Omnicom's Goodby, Silverstein & Partners to Deutsch. In the first month of 2007, three other sizable accounts have shifted without reviews: Macy's $200 million media account; Johnson & Johnson's media planning duties on its Tylenol brand; …

1-800-Flowers.com is announcing a "Video Valentine" service today that allows users to go the site and upload photos, write messages and choose musical themes and graphics. The site then meshes the various elements into a 60-second clip, that includes enough motion and sound to approximate a video experience. The site allows users to send the valentines for free, and, after employees review them for inappropriate content, they may post the valentines on the site for others to view and rate. "The scary thing is that we don't know the financial implications of this," says Jim McCann, CEO of …

A federal jury that was deadlocked 50-50 for 12 hours ultimately rejected ex-Coke secretary Joys Williams' defense. She claimed she was an unwitting pawn in a scheme to sell confidential documents and sample test products, but the jury found her guilty as charged Friday. In the end, taped conversations between Williams' two admitted co-conspirators convinced the holdouts that she tried to help sell Coca-Cola secrets to PepsiCo for $1.5 million, jurors told the lawyers in the case. Williams, 41, faces a maximum of 10 years in prison, but will remain free on bond until she is sentenced. No …

Fueled by a heavy dose of testosterone, advertising for the new Toyota Tundra pickup truck will carry the tagline: "The truck that changes it all." Two 30-second spots break during Sunday's Super Bowl. Both are set on the floor of a prairie surrounded by mountains. Narration comes from a nicotine-rasped male that colloquially tosses in an "ain't" here and there as he describes the durability of the truck. In one, the Tundra pulls a load of bricks up an incline, showing off a 10,800-lb towing capacity. The other spot shows a speeding Tundra barely zipping past …

Wal-Mart is introducing a "Global Innovation Projects" program that includes a challenge for Wal-Mart associates and suppliers to remove non-renewable energy from products the company sells. The company also will involve customers and communities in the sustainability effort. Wal-Mart has come up with a scorecard to grade its suppliers' environmental progress and will "pick the ones moving in the right direction," according to CEO Lee Scott, who spoke yesterday at a London conference sponsored by Britain's Prince Charles. Still, customers make the ultimate decision with their purchase choices, Scott says. Another aspect of the sustainability push is …